I've been on this forum for a few months now but haven't really introduced myself. I'm Joël, I live in Holland and just turned 26. Almost 4 years ago I sold my old classic Mini Cooper for something that wouldn't rust so quickly.. Been searching for some time and the Z4 roadster came up. My dad used to have a gorgeous E85 3.0si in Rubinschwarz with individual yellow-ish interior. That thing was amazing and by then I just remembered how nice they were.
So when I was going to see some roadsters, I also saw a coupe in a shop.. And thought: OH YES, I NEED THAT. It's not that I didn't know they existed, I just 'forgot' about them.. That coupe they had was a dark blue one, but with beige leather and wood trim interior. Not my taste, also the gearbox wasn't so brilliant. So kept searching.
Back then I wanted an automatic gearbox (easier for the traffic jams I had to go through every week). So after a few weeks of searching I found a good looking 2006 silvergrey coupe 3.0si for sale. And that was such a more smooth driving car. A week later I was the happy owner
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But hey the title says: keeping it original?
Yes that was the plan when I bought it 4 years ago, keep it original so it has its most value when selling later. Until I thought, sell it? Nah maybe never. This is such a unique car and like a good friend (will be mentioned later) says about his coupe; making it OEM+.
Alright, so. How did I get there. One day I was biking around my hometown and I saw around 10 coupes driving by, wondering why I wasn't there! So I started searching on Facebook and joined a group where I was immediately invited to a Dutch whatsapp group with by then around 15 coupe owners (right now we're at 37!). So a few weeks later I joined the first meet, it was a small meet with my silver grey, and 3 interlagos blue M coupes. They said is that I should get spacers on my wheels, so they make the car wider. So I did and that's the first mod! Of many..
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Soon after that I got a matte black grill to replace the silver ones and these makes the nose much sportier.
A few months later a friend in the whatsapp group was selling his carbon spoiler because he ordered the bigger Skyer spoiler. That'd be too much for me and got the spoiler from him and after 45 mins of measuring the middle and put it on the car, it's again more sportier.
Then it was time for something.. Bigger.. More expensive.. I wanted a sports exhaust. I mean I like the sound of the standard exhaust but like a lot, it could be a bit louder.. I didn't want to remove a muffler because this is my daily and I don't want to get annoyed of the sound. My mind fell on Eisenmann.. Those just look brilliant, the big steel pipes make it look sporty but also elegant. Then the question; sport or race version? After asking around, I went for the sport cause that would be a little louder but not too loud. So ordered it but hey it was covid time and materials were barely available. I had to wait around 5 months to get it. I ordered it at a Dutch retailer and somehow, when my garage was fitting it and noticed it didn't fit so good, somehow the retailer ordered at Eisenmann the muffler for the pre facelift. Why? Who knows.. Stupid mistake, cause it was hanging too low and made contact with other parts when driving. Making it so annoying to drive. I contacted the retailer and gladly they ordered the right one at their cost. But hey! Another 5 month wait... So almost a year after ordering a muffler, I got the right one and this was good right away when fitted. The sound is brilliant, a deep and good sound.
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I'll update this regularly!
